


Braids and Bitches

by perseusposeidon



Category: The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Other, Platonic Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-25
Updated: 2016-05-25
Packaged: 2018-06-10 18:12:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6968434
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perseusposeidon/pseuds/perseusposeidon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Honestly I'm just really big trash for platonic Liper (Leo and Piper) so I wrote a pre-Jason fic of just doofus thing they did.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Braids and Bitches

Piper was yanked forward by the grab of a calloused hand tightly gripping hers, as she tried to suppress her giggling, before failing and laughing as her dark brown hair flew behind her as Leo and herself ran down the empty corridor. Leo was in front, his suspenders keeping his shirt in place, but no such luck for Piper - her ‘Hello Kitty’ shirt started showing half of her stomach.

“You’re lucky you’re such a dork, Leo! Those damn suspenders keep your shirt in place!” Piper called up to him, her voice full of giggles and excitement.

Leo looked back at her hurt, placing his free hand on his chest. “What gives you the right to call me a whale penis?” 

“Well, that’s what you are, aren’t you?” Piper snickered, tears almost sprouting from her eyes as she struggled to stop laughing.

Piper turned her sight to the bright white walls of the corridor, new posters scattered, as old ones, torn, ripped, and muddied with footprints, lay on the dirtier ground.

She started to recognize the area, taking pieces of her surroundings into check. She smiled widely, which wasn’t much different to what she had been doing just a second before.

Leo rolled his eyes, a smile playing on his lips, as he turned back around to face what was in front of them. “Left turn five feet!” he called back, and made a sharp jar towards the left, just as far as he said to, as Piper scattered her way in, almost tripping over herself.

Piper let out a chuckle, “Leo! You almost killed me!” She jabbed her fist towards Leo’s arm, but he jumped out of the way just in time, before tripped backwards and landing on his butt.

Piper burst into another fit of laughter, holding her stomach, laughing so hard the pain in her stomach became almost unbearable as tears of joy poured from her eyes, “You--you’re such a dork!” she snorted out, as Leo joined in on the laughter,

“Stop snorting, it’s gonna be the death of me!” Leo complained, his chocolate brown eyes burning with joy.

Piper chuckled as she turned her head, taking in her surroundings. She was in Leo’s dorm, the walls a bright white, although machine grease- machine grease that Piper couldn’t understand how he achieved the goal of getting it in a dorm room with no permanent machines in it, but he did- splattered some of the walls. Leo was ‘too busy’ to clean up. The blinds were drawn tight, not letting anyone see through the clear windows. The setting sun glowing through the cracks of the curtains, drawing beautiful orange, pink, and red lines across the walls. Leo’s bed was messily sprawled across the floor, his pillow halfway across the room. The bed on the opposite side of the room was empty and unoccupied as always, as no one-- no boy-- wants to stay within the same room as Leo. Piper would gladly volunteer any day.

Leo picked himself up off the floor, brushing the dust off his pants, a goofy grin on his face as he only spread machine oil over the sides. “Oops?” Leo laughed.

Piper shook her head in mock disappointment. “Oh, Leo, tell me, why do I put up with you and your dork face?” 

Leo snorted, rolling his eyes, “Because without me and my dork face, you, dickwad, wouldn’t survive a minute.” Leo made a kissy face, moving towards Piper with his arms outstretched towards her.

She laughed, pushing her hand against his face, pushing him back. “Get away from me, you dork!” Piper screeched, her kaleidoscopic eyes twinkling with humour.

Leo shook his head, pushing his black curls behind his ears after they fell into his eyes. “You’re unbelievable, dickwad.” He chuckled, taking quick strides towards his unmade bed, sitting down in the middle of it, and patting the spot beside him, inviting Piper to sit down, a goofy smile playing on his lips.

Piper laughed, and ran over, flopping into the bed, falling over into his lap. She smiled widely, her cheeks almost shutting off her eyesight.

“What movie are we watching today, dork?” Piper asked, looking up at the grease-covered boy she was laying on.

Every Friday the two of them snuck to Leo’s room, and screwed around Netflix, looking for a cheesy horror movie to watch together. You see, Leo somehow managed to find the Netflix password from our Homeroom teacher, and they’d used it ever since. 

Last Friday, Piper and Leo had watched Zombeavers, a stupid movie about zombified beavers, and they’d gotten the inside joke, “I feel like a PowerRanger” from the movie, and the two refuse to tell people what it meant. The Friday before that, they’d watched Nightmare on Elm Street 2, finding @shut.up.grady, and moist Jesse, the times before that Piper and Leo had watched all the Chucky movies, finding #stopBarb2k16. 

The watching of movies had just become tradition for them, they’d fall asleep together, laughing about random parts of the movie, or talking nonsense, a lot of the time it would be giggling about quotes from the One-Star movies.

Leo ran his nimble fingers through Piper’s stringy hair, a smile fluttering to his lips, “How about we look, shall we?” He suggests, tossing the remote into Piper’s fumbling hands, dropping the remote on the floor.

“Oh . . . Leo, can you pick that up for me?” Piper whinned, a small grin on her face, already knowing his answer.

“Piper!” Leo complained, “You are literally on me! And you can reach it easily dickwad!” Saying exactly what Piper had predicted, as he raised his hand, flicking her forehead.

Piper groaned, leaning over the side of the bed, grabbing the remote off the floor, “Well, how rude are you?” Piper pouted, even as a smile tugged at the corners of her lips.

Piper pressed down on the red power button, and the television flickered to life, like a doctor pressing the paddles against the chest of a patient, performing a Crash Cart. 

Piper clicked a few more buttons until the red screen from the Netflix start up flashed across their faces, the reflection making their skin look red. 

As the two waited, Leo tied small thin braids at the side of Piper’s hair with his gentle fingers, as Piper settled into the boy, her head resting in his lap, “Hey, Leo?” She mumbles, her voice quiet, full of happiness, and love towards her friend.

Leo grunted, “Yes, dickwad?” Leo brushed some of the hair from Piper’s face, even though the strands just returned back, tangling in front of her eyes.

Piper cracked a smile, “I just wanted to tell you that you have spinach in your teeth.” She stated, looking up at Leo, who’s hand flew up to his mouth before stopping abruptly, 

“Piper! I don’t eat spinach! That’s just disgusting!” He scowled, crossing his arms in ridicule anger, as if he thought that would get her to bow down and beg for his forgiveness. She flicked his forehead, and burped loudly.

She guffawed at him gagging as she flipped through movie to movie, seeking for a One-Star horror movie they could watch. 

“Crowsnest, ‘What they thought was a road trip was a tour through the dark den of a sordid and an altogether different breed. When five friends disappear during a road trip, police discover videos that graphically detail their bizarre, and horrific experiences’” Piper jested, her voice dramatic as she read aloud the description to Leo.

The movie seemed awful, who wanted to watch another stupid road trip movie? All that happened in them was the girl screaming at the top of her lungs, and clutching onto the muscular guy, who would say “don’t worry, baby I’ll protect you!” before getting murdered. The movie seemed perfect to Piper.

Leo laughed, and it seemed he had just been thinking the same as Piper. “Yeah, turn it on,” he giggled, running his fingers through her hair. He reached into the top drawer of his dark, smooth dresser pulling out a bag of sour keys, before reaching in again, and pulling out skittles as well, dropping the skittle bag onto Piper’s face, snorting, taking the sour keys for himself.

Leo snatched the remote from Piper’s hold on them, clicking a button as the movie came to life. The pixels danced across the screen, forms of human trees cars and trucks coming into the imagery of the screen. 

Piper munched on her Skittles, not caring that her already overly curvy body will grow fatter. She didn’t mind the squish in her stomach and thighs, she liked them. It made her different from the other pixie thin girls at this School of Punishment.

Piper laughed a little, thinking of all the negative comments she had ever gotten on her body. 

Some days when Piper was in class, a snobby girl, Isabel, would load up wads of spit balls, her aim of fire towards Piper, most commonly, Piper’s hair. 

“Hey, fatty, you’ve got something in your hair,” the insufferable preppy girl would snarl, her eyes digging through Piper, waiting for a reaction.

Most days Piper would calmly reach her hands to the back of her head, gently picking through her hair, dislodging the majority of the spit balls, getting Leo to remove the rest when she saw him next,, his thin nimble fingers easily working out the spit clumps, as they sat silently, not a word passing through them, just their slow breaths, easing Piper’s mind.

Leo’s fingers would softly collect three strands of Piper’s hair, gently folding them over each other until a soft, messy braid laid at the back of Piper’s head, hanging over her shoulder. 

Leo was actually the one that ended up teaching Piper to braid hair, the process of teaching her took three days, and a broken nose (there’s a possibility that it was Leo’s nose, but they both decided to move past that . . . ), but she had finally accomplished a braid. She’d worn braids in her hair everyday since, whether it was a braid using all her hair, or just strands of hair at either side of her head. She liked to tell herself it was because they were fun, easy hearted, and pretty, and that’s what she told people too, but she knew that she actually kept them as a token to her and Leo’s friendship, so she’d always have part of her best friends with her, and to have the courage to keep moving, because if she touched the braid she knew she had something to keep going for; Leo.

Piper munched on several Skittles as the movie continued on, a huge mess of trailer trucks, insane murderers, and awful plot.

By the time the credits rolled, Piper had drifted off in Leo’s lap, vivid dreams playing in her mind, torturing her sleep.

“-and what makes you think that you can stay safe, Piper McLean? What makes you think that now that you’re gone, the monsters will stay away from your father?” A voice rang out, vibrating Piper's’ ears, almost too painful to bear.

Piper looked around,over the side of the mountain, behind her city lights shined bright against the dark, starless skies, so over polluted, the stars couldn’t even make the slightest break through the sky. It reminded Piper of stories her father told her, about Fauns and Satyrs, always keeping the world in check, helping their god, what was the name . . . Pam? No, Pan, helping their god Pan clean the world. 

Her father would say that while Pan was moving around, the area he stood would sprout fresh, green grasses, weeds would shrivel up and dissipate, the sun would shine brighter, the skies would grow bluer, farmers farmland crops would grow successfully. He had said that the world was beautiful. Until Pan died. Humans stopped believing, and slowly one by one the humans turned against the thought of Pan, turning the Earth to their personal trash bag. The thought of it left a sour taste in Piper's mouth.

The view in front of her was breathtaking, except the purple fire ruined the image. It wasn’t that the purple fire wasn’t beautiful, it was what was in front of the fire that killed the beauty, 

“Dad!” Piper cried, tugging her legs forward in an attempt to reach her father, chained to a pole next the the fire, with no success of leaving the area she began in. Her feet seemed to be stuck in the mud spreading over the mountain top. 

Piper pulled and pushed, digging her nails into the ground, trying to move forward, she heard a soft yelp, almost seeming to come from a different time, a different world, but she couldn’t think of that right now, she needed to free her dad, she couldn’t stand seeing him beat up, and broken, blood dripping from a corner of his mouth.

Piper had seen this image portrayed by him tons, but those were in stupid movies, those were all acts, with fake makeup and ketchup, but this seemed too real. This was too real. 

“If you want your father back, come to me, and come alone. Neither of those demigod scum boys along with you.” The beast in the shadow growled, though Piper didn’t understand.

Demigods? What did stupid myths have to do with anything? What did the voice mean, ‘boys’, she only had one friend, Leo, and there was no other guy in the school that could possibly be powerful enough to be a so called demigod. Piper would never even believe that Leo or herself could be a demigod. The world in front of Piper started to ripple. She was about to lose her dad once again.

Piper woke up screaming and thrashing in Leo’s arm, blood running down his leg, she wanted to ask him why he was bleeding, but she wasn’t in the right state of mind to ask him, his looked eyes panicked, though everything looked panicked to Piper, 

“NO! NO I HAD MY CHANCE! I HAD M--MORE TIME AND I FAILED HIM!” Piper screeched, her arms swinging around wildly, searching for a way to free them, and Piper from Leo’s rough grasp. 

“Stay still, Beauty Queen, you need to take deep breaths. It wasn’t real, it was a dream, your father is safe, okay? I promise.” Leo spoke into Piper’s ear, the tone of his voice soothing, and calm, having Piper calm in just over five minutes. 

“It was real Leo-- he-- he wasn’t safe-- he isn’t safe!” Piper screeched, complete panic taking over her once again, Leo’s voice failing to keep her calm, even though it had several minutes ago. Panic started rising in her chest as she thought about the dream-- her dad, strung up and bloodied beside that purple fire. 

The room went into a fuzzy blur, melting through her mind, as useless as trying to see all the ingredients in a well-blended smoothie. The colours mixed together, almost solidifying into a crimson red, a sign panic was taking over her body, and not in the good Panic at the Disco way. This was nothing to joke about, her lungs felt like they were collapsing in on each other, her throat was closing in on her, her eyesight tunneling, panic was eating away at control over her body.

She barely noticed when Leo swung around her, straddling her waist, pushing her body against the bed, pinning her down, 

“Beauty Queen, c’mon deep breaths, breathe, it’s a dream, I promise, please just . . .” Leo’s voice faded out of what she was hearing, a loud ringing in her ears covering Leo’s words until it was nothing.

She only caught little bits and pieces every once in awhile of her friend was saying, things like, “-only two more days until the first semester ends--”, and “field trip to the Grand canyon--”, or comforting things like, “-you’re my best friend Piper, I love you so much--”, and “-please be okay, I can’t lose another person, please--”. That’s what finally snapped her back to reality, and out of the dream, I can’t lose another person, please.

She blinked, and everything seemed fine again, the room stopped spinning, and her vision was clear, “What happened to your leg?” She asked, pushing Leo off her, staring at his bleeding leg. 

“Oh . . . while you were sleeping, ah, you kinda grabbed my leg and your nails broke through my skin . . .” Leo trailed off, obviously trying to say it as calmly as possible so Piper wouldn’t feel bad.

Piper looked at the wound on a closer inspection, and she observed five puncture holes, in the clear spotting of how a hand would be, “Damnit, Leo, I’m sorry--” Pier cut herself off with silence, her mind still too clogged up with thoughts of her dream, and her father's safety to be able to think about anything at the time, even if it had to do with her injured best friend, “I’m just sorry . . .” She said at last, “Let’s just go bandage you up.”

 

~ ~ ~

It was the day of the field trip, Leo’s leg had healed over okay, and any time Piper had tried to apologize he’d brush her off, saying it was okay.

Though Piper didn’t feel it was okay. What kind of friend hurts their best friend? It was a rational thought, but Piper brushed it away, he said it was okay, so that’s what it is. Okay.

The two days before the field trip had been Hell, already full of teasing of her race, and the Hualapai, the teasing had started even before they got to the Grand Canyon. Typical.

The only good part was Leo. They’d spent hours together doing the most random things; Leo hiding things of Pipers, and giving her thirty seconds to find it or she’d get blasted with five to ten water balloons, or Leo trying to teach her his native language; Spanish.

“Repeat after me,” he’d said, a grin playing on his lips as Piper braced herself, “Piper McLean es un puto dickwad, y ella tiene que ir a follar a sí misma.”

Piper smiled, hearing the word fuck in the sentence, and repeated, just like Leo had told her to, her voice not as fluent as Leo’s but still quite well, but that had always been the case with her.

A mischievous grin had captured Leo’s lips, and a snicker sounding in the otherwise quiet room, and Piper knew, she screwed up.

“What did you make me say, Leo?” Piper screeched, lunging herself at Leo, who had scrambled out of the way just in the nick of time, avoiding Piper’s attempt to tackle him.

Leo snorted, squirming away from Piper, his butt dragging across the floor, “Piper McLean is a fucking dickwad, and she needs to go fuck herself!” Leo mused, pulling himself up from the floor quickly, brushing off his pants.

Piper stopped, “Why would you make it look like I just said the worst thing in the world? Leo!” she proceeded to lunge at him once more.

Pride filled her lungs as she successfully tackling the boy back to the ground with a slight oomph from her best friend, now under her.

She stared down at him, smiling, “You’re such a dork.” She said, laughing at the shocked expression on his face, his eyes dancing with amusement, with Leo’s dancing with surprise.

“Yeah . . . you got me there, dick wad.” Leo murmured, a smile cracking the seriousness of his face, sending a relief through Piper, as Leo almost never wore a serious face.

Piper’s gaze landed on the old rusty bus she was given as the ride to their field trip. She looked around at the other students forced onto the bus. 

Piper groaned, and looked at the banged up bus once more, that would soon be filled with the smell of sweat, and laughter. Piper already hated this trip.

Leo grabbed her hand, yanking her forward, pulling her onto the bus, “C’mon, the best thing we can do is at least get backseat.”

Piper sighed, but took backseat with her friend, and took one look around the bus, seeing the rest of the kids file in, the ratty old vehicle already clustered, and smelly after a few minutes, “This is going to be Hell,” She muttered, and turned on her side, leaning her head against Leo’s shoulder, “I’m taking a nap.”

Her eyes fell closed, and despite the noise, Piper fell into a dreamless sleep quite quickly, drowsiness suddenly filling her, every sound and thought droning out of her.

~ ~ ~

Piper opened her eyes, and looked beside her, smiling slightly at her sleeping boyfriend Jason. Her boyfriend, and best friend. Piper noticed in the seat ahead a pile of black curly hair that she recognized as her friend Leo’s.

 

Piper’s lips tugged into a smile as Jason opened his eyes, but quickly faded once she saw the confused, almost disgusted or repulsed look on his face, she squeezed his hand, “Jason, you okay?”


End file.
